What it's about: Wrestling? Please, that stuff is so phony. Boxing? Those wusses wear gloves and pull their punches! Nope, the new hotness is mixed martial arts or MMA which has gone from being a pretty fringe sport to being one of the pre-eminent disciplines of the age. Who doesn't like to watch buff dudes grappling with each other in a metal cage for money? Nobody, that's who. It's an intense, high-stakes sport, which is what makes it such a good backdrop for intense, high-stakes drama. Strangely its not an environment that's been explored all that much through fiction, save for the brilliant (and underrated) film Warrior starring Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, and Tom Hardy's ludicrous traps. That's where Kingdom - about a washed-up MMA guy who trains fighters - comes in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGIjEKrMeQM Why it looks good: As we say, MMA is a pretty neat setting for a drama, and we're surprised it hasn't been used more often. Especially since TV has a good track record when it comes to sports dramas, with Friday Night Lights one of the biggest critical and commercial hits of recent years. At the centre of Kingdom is, in fact, Warrior's Frank Grillo as the washed-up trainer in question, who hopes to live vicariously through the victories of his prize-fighting sons Jonathan Tucker and a jacked-up Nick Jonas (yes, of Disney teeny boppers the Jonas Brothers). Stuff starts to get even more messed up when Friday Night Lights Matt Lauria shows up as an ex-convict hoping to get back into the game. That's a volatile mix of characters, situation and conflict we reckon when that tinder box goes off, it's gonna be something to see.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
